My birthday is in September, and when I was a kid I disliked it. I would spend the whole summer wanting some item only to receive it days after I went back to school. Also, it’s no good trying to throw a party and invite kids you’ve just met.

Anyway, I can remember one summer when I was in the fourth or fifth grade. I really wanted a pitch-back net (similar to this, but probably from K-Mart so not nearly that expensive), and I dreaded the idea that I would miss out on a whole summer of using it if I didn’t get it until September.

So my parents moved my birthday to June 4 so that I could get my presents and have them all summer to play with.

Happy not quite my birthday to me.

So this has nothing to do with film, fiction, bioethics, or any of the other stuff I usually talk about here. But it’s funny: Second Memoir in a Week Rocks White House

As I’m the kind of person who watches the Super Bowl for the ads, it makes sense that I loved this. Slate’s Ad Report Card guy, Seth Stevenson, reviews the latest Clio award winning commercials.

Highlights

A Canadian cereal company revitalized a tired brand by rotating the squares 45 degrees to create New Diamond Shreddies. In the video below, note the rating scales. I particularly like the rainbow scale.

In a bit of classic German humor, the wind laments being misunderstood until his energy was put to good use.

A Thai ceiling board company uses reptiles to sell its product. Warning: saddest Gecko commercial ever.